Don Litton’s Columbia 29 ‘Pythagoras’
It doesn’t take much to enjoy sailing. When we wrote a story titled “Do You Have Any Good Stories From Your 20s?” a few weeks ago, it was a purposeful double entendre about being in our 20s and sailing boats 20–29 feet. We were thinking of the days when boats were typically smaller, simpler, less expensive and sailed much more frequently. The sailing demographic was also younger and had more free time. For some reason, devices, productivity gains, apps, DoorDash, Uber and all the rest have resulted in less free time. Why is that?
Not long afterward, we received a note from Don Litton in Southern California with the photo that appears on this month’s cover. It’s a boat in the “20s” (a Columbia 29) built in the ’60s. Many boats of this era are sitting idle or getting crushed on their way to the landfill. Not Don Litton’s Columbia 29. He’s restored it and has been cruising the Channel Islands with his family with it since 2014. The only thing to download and upload on this floating device is the anchor on the bow roller.
The “tiny home” movement and ADUs are a very popular trend in the landbound world. Why are boats getting so big? Don didn’t buy the boat and suddenly spend a fortune to restore it. He’s been slowly upgrading it while also frequently getting out to sail. After 12 years of ownership and plenty of sailing and cruising with his kids to the Channel Islands, the boat is looking pretty sharp and sailing frequently. For Don, this is an upgrade from the decade he spent owning a Columbia 24 he sailed out of Santa Barbara.
They found solitude, quietude, adventure and relaxation on family trips to the Channel Islands. It’s hard to believe 20+ million people are living a frenzied life in an enormous metropolitan area just 30 miles away. The small, inexpensive boat probably gets out there more frequently because the oversized boats in neighboring berths have to unplug their shorepower and are probably too much work and take more crew to manage. As Lin and Larry Pardey said, “Go small and go now.”
The Columbia 24 and Columbia 29 are Don’s big-boat stories. In his early 20s, he sailed from Redwood City to the Channel Islands on a 20-footer. As Don explains, “I had a 16-year-old friend, the best sailor I’ve ever known, who wanted to sail down to the Channel Islands on his Signet 20, but his mom said I had to go too. I was 20 or so at the time. We left Redwood City and, at dawn, we went out the Gate and turned left. Two days of surfing and we were at Point Conception. But the truly amazing thing is that, after cruising around the islands for two weeks with his mom, he sailed that boat back up the coast with another high school friend! I think it is the smallest boat with the youngest skipper to ever do that! How did we all survive childhood?”
Seeing photos like these reminds us of what life was like before we started trying to optimize everything, before FOMO and social media overtook our lives. We think Don’s humble yet very good-looking Columbia 29 is a reminder of a more relaxed era. As we hear of more young people trying to capture a sense of ease in their lives or older generations trying recapture the times when they took it easy on their boat for the weekend, the idea of smaller, cheaper, older boats that fulfill the basics of enjoying sailing makes sense.
Latitude 38’s founder, Richard Spindler, exemplified keeping it simple. He does have a 63-ft catamaran that’s served as the mothership for the Baja Ha-Ha for years. While large, it was kept simple for most of its many Baja Ha-Ha’s, though eventually Starlink and other improved tech came aboard. The well-known cat could have overshadowed smaller-boat sailing; however, much of Richard’s many miles of sailing took place aboard three different, extremely simply rigged Olson 30s (almost in the 20s). The Olson 30 is one of many great boats that are inexpensive and simple so one can “just go sailing.”
Do you have a story from your 20s? Add it to our comments below.